Interpreting Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) is probably the most famous English
playwright and poet - whose life
has been open to interpretation almost as much as his works. The Archives Hub includes descriptions of archival material relating to Shakespeare's life - including questions of identity and authorship - and also material relating to many translations, adaptations, and performances of his works:

The images above may be used for educational purposes
only, any commercial use of this material requires the permission
of the copyright holder. Part of the Designing Shakespeare collection. This collection can be
searched and browsed online via the Performing Arts Data Service web site at
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/.

Berwick
Kaler in A Midsummer Night's Dream, New
Shakespeare Company, 1982. Copyright The New Shakespeare Company;
courtesy of the Shakespeare Institute Library, University of Birmingham.

"Speak of me as I am": life, identity and authorship

Alan Keen (fl. 1940-1955): London bookseller and manuscript dealer, author of The annotator: the pursuit of an Elizabethan reader of Halle's Chronicle, involving some surmises about the early life of William Shakespeare (1954)

Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence (1837-1914): Member of Parliament for Truro, and author of Bacon is Shakespeare (1910) and The Shakespeare myth (1912)

Shakespeare Commemorative Service: held at Southwark Cathedral, April 23rd 1909; the service was organised by Ralph Winnington Leftwich, MD (1849-1919), author of Bacon is not Shakespeare (1912) and The evidence of disease in Shakespeare's handwriting (1918)

"Bless thee! thou art translated": translations and adaptations

Renaissance Films: the actor and director Kenneth Brannagh (born 1960) was one of the founders of this film company, which produced Henry V (1989)

Unpublished Screenplay Collection: unpublished screenplays and shooting scripts for film adaptations of Shakespeare plays; includes West Side story
(1961), King Lear (1971), and Romeo and Juliet (1996)

Sir John Gielgud (1904-2000): the actor's performance of Macbeth's "Tomorrow" speech formed part of a Kyogen dance event in Tokyo in 1991

"Shakespeare: the animated tales": animated series for television (1990-1992), with members of the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company providing the voices

"Like
quills upon the fretful porpentine": suggested reading

Links are provided to records on Copac for these items. Copac
is the free, web based national union catalogue, containing the holdings
of many of the major university and National Libraries in UK and Ireland
plus a number of special libraries. For more information about accessing
items see the FAQs
on the Copac website.